Good morning, here's what the Oilman has for you today:

• Activists Sue Texas for ESG Law

• Harris Does 180 on Fracking

• Tweet of the Day

Activists Sue Texas for ESG Law

An environmentalist group is suing Texas.

It claims that Senate Bill 13 violates the First Amendment.

Free speech = investments

Senate Bill 13 is the law that Texas passed to punish banks that curbed investments in oil and gas.

The state said that practice amounted to a boycott of its key industry.

So, it passed a bill banning Texas agencies from investing in those banks.

Now, ESG activists are striking back.

Apparently, the ban is a violation of the right to freedom of speech…

Which is somehow the same as making investment decisions.

It’s weird but we live in an increasingly weird world.

Texas Comptroller Glenn Hager called the suit frivolous.

He said it wanted to force Texas to invest "in a manner inconsistent with their values and detrimental to their own economic well-being. That is absurd.”

Indeed, it is.

But it might just work.

Then again, the plaintiffs accuse Texas of “viewpoint-based discrimination”.

Which is basically the same thing that Texas accused those banks of doing.

It should be fun.

Courts as battlefields

Courts are turning into one of the main battlefields of energy reason vs energy ideology.

And the latter camp is setting precedents.

Remember that climate lawsuit in Montana?

The judge sided with the children's plaintiffs.

It’s not going to remain just a precedent for long.

Activists love court battles.

They can’t win on the market, after all.

Harris Does 180 on Fracking

Kamala Harris was a big, loud opponent of fracking in 2019.

She wanted to ban the technology to save the planet.

Now, she’s promising there will be no ban on fracking.

How the tables turn

“There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking,” Harris said back in 2019.

“As vice president, I did not ban fracking. As president, I will not ban fracking.”

Those are kind of mixed signals, to put it mildly.

But behind them lies a very simple fact: the swing states.

To win the November election, she needs their votes.

And some of these states happen to be quite reliant on fracking.

One state in particular is very important… and very gassy.

That’s Pennsylvania, of course, the second-largest gas producer in the country.

It also happens to be a key swing state.

Sticking to the fracking ban would have been suicide.

There’s something to learn about politician’s morals right there.

But more importantly, there’s something to learn about energy security.

No supply without demand

There’s a reason Pennsylvania is the second-largest gas producer in the U.S.

It’s not just the fact that it has the resources.

It’s also the fact there is demand for that gas.

If that had gone, pushed out by alternative energy sources, Pennsylvania would have turned to something else.

And Harris could have stuck with its fracking ban idea.

But gas demand is not gone because there is no alternative.

Some food for thought for aspiring presidents.

Tweet of the Day

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